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8. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Preparations for the 2022 World Cup continue to rely on the labour of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, many of whom have suffered so that the world can enjoy its most watched international sporting event. FIFA failed to take sufficient action to prevent this suffering when it could have done so, and in fact enabled it by choosing to award the World Cup to a country where widespread labour abuses were clearly foreseeable, without imposing any conditions to protect workers’ rights. However, FIFA has also learnt many lessons since it made the award in 2010 and has taken some unprecedented steps, such as producing the first ever sustainability strategy for a World Cup based on a systematic assessment of human rights risks. FIFA still has time to prevent at least some further abuses in the final run-up to the World Cup and during its delivery. However, it will not be in a position to prevent them all, and it definitely cannot erase the suffering of the past. In line with the UN Guiding Principles and its own commitment to remediate abuses to which it has contributed, FIFA must now ensure that any abuses related to the tournament that it has not prevented are fully remediated. Where existing mechanisms are incapable of delivering full reparation, new mechanisms should be set up with both Qatar and FIFA promptly stepping in to provide remedy. The 2022 World Cup will be far from exemplary in terms of preventing harm, but it can still represent a turning point in FIFA’s quest to respect human rights if all workers who have suffered abuses in the preparation, staging and delivery of its flagship event receive adequate reparation. In the next six months leading up to the 2022 World Cup, Qatar must stringently enforce its labour laws and press ahead with its reform plans to protect migrant workers’ rights and prevent them from falling victim to further abuses. Simultaneously, it must work to remediate all harm already caused that remains unaddressed or poorly addressed whether related to World Cup projects or not. This includes working with FIFA, Q22, the Supreme Committee and other relevant domestic and international actors to ensure remedy for abuses suffered by migrant workers engaged in World Cup-related projects and services who have so far been unable to obtain full and adequate reparation. Alongside efforts to prevent further abuses of migrant workers engaged in World Cup-related projects and services, Qatar and FIFA must now: • Ensure that all migrant workers who suffered harm because of their involvement in World Cuprelated work have access to full and adequate reparation in line with international human rights law and standards. Such reparation should extend to the migrant workers’ families where applicable. • Urgently initiate structured discussions with all relevant stakeholders – including, in particular, workers, global trade unions, ILO representatives, civil society organizations and individual labour and human rights experts – with a view to designing and implementing a targeted and effective remediation programme for abused migrant workers engaged in World Cup-related projects and services. The programme would also cover past abuses that have so far not been adequately remediated and extend beyond abuses in the context of Supreme Committee projects. As part of this programme, Qatar and FIFA should: o Review and strengthen existing remedial mechanisms in consultation with workers to ensure they can deliver effective remedy in line with international human rights law.
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o Consider the establishment of new mechanisms, including collective redress processes, where existing mechanisms are proving incapable of delivering prompt and full reparation and/or for channelling a large number of similar grievances that have so far not received adequate reparation. o Ensure workers have access to adequate legal representation and assistance before commencing and throughout the duration of remedial processes. o Discuss and set up, in consultation with all relevant stakeholders, an overarching governance structure and an independent supervisory body to oversee the functioning and outcome of all remedial mechanisms.
o Discuss and set up, in consultation with all relevant stakeholders, a mechanism for workers pursuing claims through any of the existing or new remedial mechanisms to safely raise concerns about the functioning of these mechanisms without fear of retaliation.
o Design a way for workers (or family members of deceased workers) who have open, unresolved or inadequately addressed claims to be able to come forward to seek and receive full reparation even if they are not in Qatar. • Plan for the remediation programme to last for as long as grievances remain outstanding, even if this is long after the tournament has ended. • Contribute financially towards the programme to ensure all remedial mechanisms are sufficiently resourced and capable of delivering full and swift reparation; set up new funds where needed (for example, for injured workers and families of deceased workers); and step in and provide remedy directly where remedial mechanisms are failing to deliver promptly and effectively. • As part of this FIFA should set aside an amount at least equivalent to the prize money provided to
FAs participating in the 2022 World Cup, in order to contribute to a potential compensation fund and further initiatives to strengthen protection of workers’ rights in Qatar and countries of origin.
This should include supporting the Migrant Workers’ Centre recommended by BWI. • Publish the remediation programme in full, including FIFA’s financial contribution to it. • Expand the Sustainability Strategy to include a brand new strand of work exclusively focused on the tournament organizers’ efforts to ensure effective remedy through the remediation programme. • Communicate proactively and regularly on its efforts to remediate, including by publishing up-todate, clear and comprehensive detail about the remediation programmes’ performance. This should include data (anonymized or aggregated where needed to protect individual workers) about the various remedial mechanisms in place; the number and types of complaints received; the outcomes (including feedback from workers on whether they feel they have obtained adequate reparation); and the time taken to achieve them. This reporting should continue until all World Cuprelated grievances have been resolved. • Contribute to guaranteeing non-repetition of abuses of migrant workers’ rights by pressing for the urgent and full implementation of legal reforms and supporting, including financially, the establishment of permanent measures to assist and support migrant workers going forward, such as the Migrant Workers’ Centre recommended by the BWI. • Beyond this tournament, FIFA should conduct rigorous assessments of risks to human rights for any country wishing to host FIFA’s events, and develops clear action plans to prevent and mitigate potential abuses identified. – Where identified risks cannot or will not be prevented, FIFA should not award the tournament. These risks may include abuse of workers’ rights, forced evictions, discrimination, restricted freedom of speech and financial corruption. • Establish an independent grievance mechanism specifically designed to receive and resolve complaints of abuse by workers directly or indirectly hired by FIFA/Q22 or in FIFA/Q22’s supply or sub-contracting chains, including against FIFA/Q22 themselves. This mechanism should strictly adhere to the effectiveness criteria laid out in Principle 31 of the UN Guiding Principles and be developed and overseen in collaboration with workers and/or workers’ representatives.
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ANNEX I
FIFA’S RESPONSE TO AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, 6 MAY 2022
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PREDICTABLE AND PREVENTABLE
When FIFA awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar in 2010, the existence of widespread labour rights abuses was well-documented. FIFA knew, or ought to have known, that the monumental construction work and other services required to host the tournament would rest on the shoulders of vulnerable migrant workers at severe risk of exploitation. Yet, despite these warnings, FIFA granted the multi-billion-dollar event to Qatar without imposing on the country any conditions to strengthen labour rights protections. Recognising its responsibilities far too late, and introducing measures benefiting far too few workers, the abuses that followed were both predictable and preventable. Qatar and FIFA have clear obligations and responsibilities under international human rights law and standards not only to prevent such widespread human rights abuses, but also to provide adequate remedy for victims of abuses. While Qatar’s obligation should cover every abuse on its territory, FIFA’s responsibility extends beyond workers directly employed on stadiums and training sites, to the hundreds of thousands of workers building and servicing the wider range of projects necessary for the preparation and delivery of the tournament. With six months to go to this World Cup, Qatar and FIFA should work together to put in place a comprehensive programme to provide remedy for all the workers who suffered abuse to make the FIFA 2022 World Cup possible.
INDEX: MDE 22/5586/2022 MAY 2022 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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